ITV’s India Willoughby is Britain’s first openly transgender newsreader
By Will Stroude
India Willoughby will become the UK’s first openly transgender newsreader when she returns to ITV this week.
50-year-old India had worked for ITV’s Border News for a decade, but left the broadcaster in 2010 when she began transitioning.
Having worked for BBC’s Inside Out North East, today (October 3) marks Willoughby’s onscreen debut for ITV Tyne Tees, according to the Metro.
Speaking of her excitement at returning to her the channel, she said: “ITV have been fantastic, it hasn’t been weird or awkward and they have just welcomed me back.
“I didn’t feel nervous at all when I walked back through the door again, they made me feel like I was home.
“I am just getting my toes back into the water for now, I have a lot to catch up on from over the last 10 years and all of the technology has changed massively.
“There are obviously a lot of new faces but I can still have the same banter with the old ones – they have realised that I am the still the same person, I just look different on the outside.
She added: “I don’t think that there have been people like me in the public eye in this country before – I wouldn’t want to make myself out to be some kind of an example or anything but it just shows how the nature of TV has changed for the better.
“I don’t think that I would have been accepted a few years ago.”
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